Wisconsin

Milwaukee logged lowest number of births on record in 2025, what’s behind the trend

Published

1 month ago

January 26, 2026

Milwaukee logged lowest number of births on record in 2025, what’s behind the trend

In step with global and national trends, Milwaukee logged its lowest number of births on record in 2025, with just over 7,300 babies born in the city last year.

As of Jan. 5, Milwaukee had recorded 7,343 births in 2025, though that number will likely be closer to 7,386 once records are finalized, according to John D. Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education.

That’s a 5% decline from 2024 and nearly 22% decline from 2019, when birth rates dipped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year marked the lowest number of births on record since the state began collecting data in 1990, but Johnson noted it’s also likely the lowest since the 1960s, when Milwaukee’s population reached peak levels.

Still, following the pandemic drop-off, Milwaukee’s birth count had stabilized slightly between 2022 and 2024. Last year, however, the drop was the steepest in several years.

“None of this is surprising,” Johnson said. “Declining birth rates, in general, are super normal, but I don’t have an answer for what happened [in 2025]. It’s a concerning sign for the city.”

Along with people simply having fewer children than they used to, experts say a lack of affordable homes, health care and childcare are all driving the trend. Locally, parents say social isolation and diminishing resources for new families are also making it more difficult to raise kids in Milwaukee.

Why are fewer people having kids in Milwaukee?

The reasons births are declining in Milwaukee largely mirror the reasons births are declining nationally and globally, according to Noelle Chesley, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Some of those reasons are structural, like the skyrocketing costs of child care and declining access to affordable health care, Chesley said. Others are demographic, including a decline in the number of teenage parents and a growing divide between people who do and don’t want children.

Recent surveys have shown men are more likely to want kids than women; conservative-leaning people more likely to want kids than liberal-leaning people; and religious people more likely than non-religious, Chesley said. That could partly explain why the number of babies born in Milwaukee dropped throughout the 2010s, while the numbers in the surrounding suburbs remained relatively stable, she said.

“We’re so split politically between our city and the suburbs,” she said. “There could be an extent of out-migration to the suburbs as people have kids.”

Statewide, school enrollment data tells a similar story: throughout the 2000s and 2010s, enrollment in suburban school districts increased, while rural school enrollment continually declined, according to Sarah Kemp, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Applied Population Lab. Urban school districts, including Milwaukee, saw relatively steady enrollment through the 2010s, but the pandemic brought a sharp decline in student enrollment in most Wisconsin cities.

“There’s maybe not housing available for those young families to move into, or maybe the opportunities aren’t there for young families to find employment, and that may then show up in the school districts with declining enrollment,” Kemp said.

In the long term, declining birth rates will continue to strain social safety nets nationwide, namely the Social Security system, Chesley said. Wisconsin also logged its lowest-ever number of births last year, with 59,517 babies born in 2025, compared to more than 72,000 in 1990, according to the state Department of Health Services.

“When you have too many older people and not enough young people, you might see things like not having enough staff to run healthcare and nursing homes. You might not have enough people running restaurants, grocery stores or other businesses,” Chesley said. “There just could be chronic labor shortages.”

Milwaukee’s north side zip codes see steepest decline in births

The disparity in birth numbers isn’t just between the city and suburbs: Milwaukee’s north and south side neighborhoods have seen the largest decreases in births over the past few years, according to Johnson.

That’s likely because some neighborhoods in the city – downtown, the upper east side, lower east side and Bayview – were already seeing lower birth rates, and other neighborhoods are now catching up, Johnson said. However, the lack of resources for pregnant people and young families could also be driving parents-to-be to move out of certain neighborhoods at higher rates, he said.

Milwaukee’s 53209 zip code, which includes the neighborhoods of Menomonee River Parkway and Rufus King, saw 235 fewer births in 2025 than 2019. The neighboring 53218 zip code logged 182 fewer births, and the 53225 zip code, 134 fewer in the same time period. Most other neighborhoods saw declines below 100 births.

Dalvery Blackwell, president and founder of the African American Breastfeeding Network, said while affordability is a struggle for young families citywide, Black families face the largest barriers. The Breastfeeding Network works to decrease the Black maternal and infant mortality rate in Milwaukee, including by training doulas to support people of color through their pregnancies and births.

“The disparities are higher than any other ethnic group when we look at Black families being able to access quality health care, childcare or even housing,” Blackwell said. “The resources are just not available in large part due to systemic racism and social economic inequalities.”

In addition to decades of research, Blackwell’s assessments have been borne out in recent history: In the past few years, the north side has seen several grocery stores, a pediatric doctor’s office and a youth food program all shutter. All five of the Milwaukee Public Schools recently selected for potential permanent closure are clustered on the north side, though Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said she isn’t ready to recommend those schools for closure this fall.

Parents look for community despite social isolation

As births decline, those who do chose to have kids in the Milwaukee area say early parenthood can be stressful, anxiety-inducing and – above all in a post-pandemic world – lonely.

In March 2020, Heather Puente, health officer for the Cudahy Health Department, had just come back from maternity leave with her second child.

“COVID hits, and I was still breastfeeding,” Puente said. “I was pumping, coming home and showering before I could even see the kids or hold my baby. It was one of the honestly worst times that I can think of.”

With her first baby, Puente said she leaned on support groups and free resources for moms through local hospitals, but these these support systems have been diminishing, notably in Cudahy and Milwaukee’s south side. In 2022, Ascension St. Francis Hospital closed its labor and delivery unit.

In the absence of larger support systems, some parents are working to create and provide their own free resources for young families. Puente is a board member for Park Pals WI, a Milwaukee-area nonprofit organizing free programming to children and their families, in hopes of connecting both kids and parents with one another.

A need for connection is also what drove Mequon resident Stephanie Ciatti to start Babbling Babes MKE, a social club for moms across the Milwaukee area. When pregnant with her third child, Ciatti said she “made a vow” to herself to start visiting the coffee shops, stores and restaurants she had loved before becoming a mom but began to feel inaccessible with small children.

Going with a group of other parents made the experience less intimidating, she said. These gatherings have also become a space for moms to connect over their struggles with limited maternity leave, postpartum support and other challenges of raising kids in the city.

“We need to do a better job nurturing those moms in the first year of life when isolation is so high, especially with winters in Wisconsin,” Ciatti said. “If you really lay out the facts, the support does not equal what these women are going through.”

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Wisconsin

Wisconsin Lawmakers Propose Ranked Choice Voting for All Elections

Published

11 minutes ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Wisconsin Lawmakers Propose Ranked Choice Voting for All Elections

BELOIT, Wis. — State Senator Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) and Representative Clinton Anderson (D-Beloit) introduced LRB-5709 on March 5, legislation that would implement ranked choice voting for state, federal, and local elections in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin legislation would also eliminate the need for February primaries in nonpartisan elections.

Today, voters in Wisconsin almost never elect independent candidates, because the state’s elections are decided by first-past-the-post plurality voting (FPPV). In this system, a voter’s expression of preference is restricted to a single candidate. Each voter has just one choice, and if there are more than two candidates in the race, winning by plurality rather than majority is quite possible.

Consequently, no matter how attractive an independent candidate may seem in the spring, summer, and early fall of an election year, he or she will be tarnished as a “spoiler” on Election Day and will almost certainly lose.

This unfortunate situation reduces the supply of independent candidates willing to compete and perpetually forces Americans into one of two warring factions.

In contrast, ranked-choice voting (RCV) allows voters to express their true preference for each candidate by ranking them in order of preference.

If no candidate wins an outright majority, the candidate with the lowest number of first-place votes is eliminated, and the second-preference votes of his or her supporters are redistributed to the remaining candidates.

This “instant runoff” process continues until a majority winner is determined. Not only does RCV give voters “more voice” in elections, but it also has the potential to stop our political system from tearing us apart into two camps.

Senator Spreitzer called the bill an improvement over a system that forces strategic voting.

“Under ranked choice voting, voters can vote for the candidate they like the most instead of having to strategically vote against the candidate they like the least,” he said.

“It is a system that encourages positive campaigns, ensures that winners have the support of a majority of voters, and allows more candidates to run without being seen as a waste of a vote or a spoiler.”

Representative Anderson pointed to existing models as evidence that the system works.

“Ranked choice voting is not a new idea. It’s already working in states like Maine and Alaska, and in cities like New York City,” he said.

“Our current system rewards candidates for tearing each other down instead of building broad support. Ranked choice voting changes that. It encourages campaigns focused on issues and coalition-building, ensures nominees win with a true majority, and creates space for more voices beyond the two-party system.”

For the best analysis of the pernicious effects of a lack of competition in our political system, please read The Politics Industry by Wisconsinite Katherine M. Gehl and her co-author, Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter.

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Wisconsin

2026 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Austin Brown, S, Wisconsin

Published

12 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

2026 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Austin Brown, S, Wisconsin

It is never too early to evaluate defensive back depth for the 2026 NFL Draft. Todd Bowles’ defense relies heavily on versatile safeties who can rotate between deep coverage, the slot, and the box while maintaining physicality against the run. Identifying defensive backs who bring positional flexibility and strong tackling ability remains an important part of building depth in Tampa Bay’s secondary.

We are working through each position group this cycle. With that in mind, here is our report on Wisconsin safety Austin Brown.

Information

School: Wisconsin
Conference: Big Ten
Position: Safety
Height Weight: 6-1, 215 pounds
Class: Senior
Hometown: Johnston City, Illinois

Background

Brown developed into a reliable defensive presence during his time at Wisconsin, progressing from a special teams contributor early in his career to a full-time starter in the secondary. After appearing in all 13 games during his freshman season primarily on special teams, Brown steadily expanded his role within the Badgers’ defense over the next three seasons.

By 2024, Brown had earned eight starts and finished the season with 51 tackles, three pass breakups, one sack, and a forced fumble. One of his standout performances came against USC, where he recorded nine tackles and delivered a strip-sack while adding two tackles for loss. His ability to contribute in multiple ways helped establish him as a dependable defensive back in Wisconsin’s secondary.

Brown took on an even larger role in 2025, starting all 12 games and finishing the year with 52 tackles, one tackle for loss, and three passes defended. His most productive outing came against Alabama, where he recorded 11 tackles and a tackle for loss. Throughout the season, he showed versatility by aligning at safety, slot defender, and occasionally outside corner, depending on the defensive package.

Academically, Brown also earned Academic All-Big Ten honors multiple times during his career.

Notable Stats

672 total snaps
43 tackles
14 assisted tackles
3 passes defended
1 pressure
1 hurry

Brown’s 2024 season stands out as his most efficient evaluation year, highlighted by a 73.7 overall defensive grade and an 85.8 tackling grade according to PFF.

Pro Day Testing

Brown also helped himself significantly during Wisconsin’s pro day testing session. His 20 repetitions on the bench press would have ranked as the top mark among safeties at the 2026 NFL Combine, surpassing the leading total of 18 reps recorded by a safety in Indianapolis.

He followed that with a 43-inch vertical jump, which would have also placed him at the top of the safety group at the combine. Arizona safety Genesis Smith recorded a 42.5-inch vertical during combine testing.

Those testing numbers highlight Brown’s explosiveness and upper-body strength. While his production reflects a steady defensive contributor, the athletic testing shows physical tools that could help him get drafted and carve out a role at the next level.

Skills

High-effort defensive back
Versatile alignment experience across the secondary
Strong tackling production for the position
Physical build at 6-1, 215 pounds
Reliable short-area pursuit
Experience playing safety, slot, and outside coverage roles
Disciplined run support

Brown’s versatility stands out when evaluating his role in Wisconsin’s defense. He logged snaps at multiple positions in the secondary, including free safety, slot defender, and outside coverage assignments, depending on the defensive package.

His physical build allows him to contribute effectively against the run. Brown consistently works downhill to finish tackles and limit yards after contact. His tackling efficiency improved significantly between 2023 and 2024, which showed up in his strong tackling grade during the 2024 season.

In coverage, Brown shows awareness of zone concepts and the ability to stay involved around the football. While he does not profile as a pure center-field range safety, his instincts and effort allow him to remain active within structured defensive schemes.

Player Summary

Austin Brown projects as a Day 3 draft selection who offers value as a versatile defensive back capable of contributing in multiple alignments. His combination of size, tackling reliability, and positional flexibility gives him a pathway to carve out a role as a rotational safety and special teams contributor early in his career.

In Tampa Bay, Brown would profile as a developmental depth option in Todd Bowles’ secondary. His experience playing multiple positions in the defensive backfield fits well with the variety of roles required in Bowles’ defense, giving him the potential to grow into a dependable rotational defender while contributing on special teams.

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Wisconsin

[Photo Story] Penn State Men’s Hockey Disappoints Against Wisconsin

Published

1 day ago

March 9, 2026

Press Room

[Photo Story] Penn State Men’s Hockey Disappoints Against Wisconsin

With the last regular-season series, No. 6 Penn State men’s hockey dropped both games to No. 11 Wisconsin over the weekend. The Nittany Lions were outplayed both nights, wrapping up their season to finish with a record of 20-12-2.

Of course, our photographers were at Pegula Ice Arena to capture all the action. Let’s take a look.

Wisconsin was dominant in both games against Penn State, winning 7-3 and 5-2, respectively. The Badgers outshot the Nittany Lions 41-31 on Thursday and 37-25 on Friday. Charlie Cerrato made a notable appearance. He played his first game back on Friday after being injured January 9 against Minnesota.

In Thursday’s game, the Nittany Lions fought for the first two periods, but the Badgers’ goal opened the third period and killed all of the momentum. In Friday’s game, the Nittany Lions fell behind from the very start and never built momentum to overcome the deficit.

Penn State now goes on to the Big Ten Tournament, where it will go up against Minnesota at home. Puck is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11.

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Ella is a second-year Telecommunications major from Miami, Florida. She enjoys taking photos, listening to all genres of music, coffee, and has become a self proclaimed grandma. If needed, you can contact her through email at [email protected] or on Twitter @ellawehm

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